BEIJING, Feb. 5 (Xinhua) -- The Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the State Council on Tuesday extended Chinese Lunar New Year greetings to all overseas Chinese, returned overseas Chinese and their relatives.

By Tuesday, overseas donations for snow-disaster areas, including funds from Hong Kong and Macao, had exceeded 55 million yuan (about 7.65 million U.S. dollars).

Office director Li Haifeng delivered a New Year speech, extending best wishes for the Spring Festival -- which falls on Thursday -- to Chinese all over the world.

Li reviewed the country's advancement in 2007 and spoke highly of the achievements of overseas Chinese societies.

On June 20, 2007, President Hu Jintao met with visiting members of overseas Chinese societies in Beijing. He called on overseas Chinese to contribute more to the modernization and reunification of China.

This fully reflected the government's sincere aspirations for overseas Chinese, Li said, noting that overseas Chinese had cooperated with their motherland in economics, science, technology, culture and education.

"The Year 2008 will be a momentous one for China when the dream of hosting the Olympic Games will be realized and the policy of reform and opening-up will have been in place for 30 years," Li said.

She encouraged offices of overseas Chinese affairs at all levels to take the opportunity to better serve all overseas Chinese.